Epoxy Replication of Aspheric Optics*

Abstract

There are many reasons for using thin film epoxy replicas besides significant cost savings for the individual components. These reasons are described using actual applications as examples. Substrate requirements for these applications range from a flat surface for a flat mirror, to a spherical surface for a moderately fast parabola, to an ellipsoidal surface for a highly aspheric ellipsoid. A description of the replica defects caused by surface defects in the substrate is presented. Also included is a brief description of the tooling, production lead times and cost volume relationships for these applications.